Lebanon Army Tracks Down ISIS-Linked Terrorists After Deadly Attack

Lebanese army soldiers ride military vehicles, in Labwe in eastern Bekaa Valley August 6, 2014. REUTERS/Hassan Abdallah
Lebanese army soldiers ride military vehicles, in Labwe in eastern Bekaa Valley August 6, 2014. REUTERS/Hassan Abdallah
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Lebanon Army Tracks Down ISIS-Linked Terrorists After Deadly Attack

Lebanese army soldiers ride military vehicles, in Labwe in eastern Bekaa Valley August 6, 2014. REUTERS/Hassan Abdallah
Lebanese army soldiers ride military vehicles, in Labwe in eastern Bekaa Valley August 6, 2014. REUTERS/Hassan Abdallah

Lebanese police have killed nine suspected members of the ISIS group in the hunt for "terrorists" linked to several deadly attacks, including on soldiers, a security source said Sunday.

Saturday's operation came more than a month after the army and security forces launched a manhunt for suspects in the August 21 killing of two municipal policemen and the son of the mayor of the northern village of Kaftoun.

Police intelligence units raided a house in the northern region of Wadi Khaled where "suspects linked to the ISIS" militant group had been holed up, "killing all the terrorists inside", the Internal Security Forces (ISF) said in a statement.

A security source said "at least nine members of the group were killed".

But the source said the death toll could rise as more bodies could be buried under the rubble of the house, part of which was blown up during the police operation.

The ISF statement said the "terrorist cell" was made up of more than 15 suspects. It added that three had been arrested in previous raids.

Following the August murders in Kaftoun, the army and police launched operations to track down the assailants.

On September 14, the army said four soldiers were killed while attempting to arrest suspected "terrorist" Khaled al-Tallawi at his north Lebanon home, though he was eventually shot dead.

Meanwhile, two Lebanese soldiers were killed overnight in an attack on an army post in the locality of Arman-Minyeh, also in the north of the country, the army said Sunday.

"Two soldiers were killed, in addition to one terrorist," it said in a statement.

An attacker "riding a motorbike tried to enter the army post, and army members confronted him, killing him instantly", it added.

They found grenades and an explosives belt on him, the last of which it said "he had intended to detonate inside the post".

Wadi Khaled and the Arman-Miniyeh region are near second city Tripoli, which has been rocked by violence involving extremists over the years, including as part of the fallout from the conflict in Syria.



Lebanon Military Says One Soldier Killed, 18 Hurt in Israeli Strike on Army Center

Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
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Lebanon Military Says One Soldier Killed, 18 Hurt in Israeli Strike on Army Center

Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb
Lebanese army soldiers and people stand at the site of an Israeli strike in the town of Baaloul, in the western Bekaa Valley, Lebanon October 19, 2024. REUTERS/Maher Abou Taleb

An Israeli strike on a Lebanese army center on Sunday killed one soldier and wounded 18 others, the Lebanese military said.

It was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes that have killed over 40 Lebanese troops, even as the military has largely kept to the sidelines in the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has said previous strikes on Lebanese troops were accidental and that they are not a target of its campaign against Hezbollah.

Lebanon's caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned it as an assault on US-led ceasefire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war.

“(Israel is) again writing in Lebanese blood a brazen rejection of the solution that is being discussed,” a statement from his office read.

The strike occurred in southwestern Lebanon on the coastal road between Tyre and Naqoura, where there has been heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups.

Israel has launched retaliatory airstrikes since the rocket fire began, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war, as Israel launched waves of airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah's top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several of his top commanders.

Israeli airstrikes early Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 20 people and wounding 66, according to Lebanon's Health Ministry. Hezbollah has continued to fire regular barrages into Israel, forcing people to race for shelters and occasionally killing or wounding them.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.

On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardments in northern Israel and in battle following Israel's ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country's north.

Hezbollah fired barrages of rockets into northern and central Israel on Sunday, some of which were intercepted.

Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service said it was treating two people in the central city of Petah Tikva, a 23-year-old man who was lightly wounded by a blast and a 70-year-old woman suffering from smoke inhalation from a car that caught fire. The first responders said they also treated two women in their 50s who were wounded in northern Israel.

It was unclear whether the injuries and damage were caused by the rockets or interceptors.

The Biden administration has spent months trying to broker a ceasefire, and US envoy Amos Hochstein was back in the region last week.

The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol the area, with the presence of UN peacekeepers.